The Use of Vocabulary Learning Strategies among Form 6 Students in a Malaysian Private School

Abstract

There are varieties of vocabulary learning strategies that can be implemented by all students. According to various past studies, vocabulary learning strategy is one of the learning methods that benefit pupils' learning style and method inside and outside of the classroom. The findings of past studies indicate that vocabulary learning strategies improve students' understanding in mastering a topic and this is also applied with learning vocabulary. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the vocabulary learning strategies employed by 50 Form 6 students in Malaysian private schools. This study was carried out at a suburban Chinese independent secondary school which is based in Klang, Selangor. The researchers utilized a quantitative approach by using surveys as a data collection tool. The findings of this study indicated that most of the students responded neutrally due to their limited knowledge of vocabulary learning strategies. Nonetheless, the most preferred vocabulary learning strategies were guessing and dictionary strategies whereas the least preferred strategy was using word lists which fall under rehearsal strategy. Therefore, it is hoped that the findings of this study would benefit the English teachers to identify the most preferred vocabulary learning strategy implemented by most of the students in their learning and reflects their implication on teaching strategies.

Preferred Vocabulary Learning Strategies among Malaysian Students

“…As such, they would avoid using rehearsal strategies. Besides that, Sasidaran et al (2021) found that most secondary students did not prefer to use the encoding strategy as their teachers did not incorporate the strategies in their learning process.…”

“…In addition, Sasidaran et al (2021) examined VLS employed by 50 secondary school students in Selangor, Malaysia. The study used VLSQ version 6.4, adapted from Gu (2018), as their principal instrument.…”

“…For this study, the main instrument used 31 items using a five-point Likert (Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Undecided, Agree and Strongly Agree), which is similar to the studies by Akbulut (2020) and Hadi and Guo (2020). Using the five-point Likert scale is to get accurate responses and prevent participants from getting confused when answering items in the questionnaire (Sasidaran et al, 2021). Table 2 presents the details of the adapted VLSQ.…”

“…Table 2 presents the details of the adapted VLSQ. Regarding validity and reliability, studies reported that VLQ version 6.4 was a reliable instrument (Akbulut, 2020;Sasidaran et al, 2021). Moreover, Gu (2018) states that VLQ version 6.4 recorded a Cronbach alpha score above .80 for most items.…”